domenica 15 dicembre 2013

Eredivisie Album 2009-2010 - AH

The official sticker collection of the Eredivisie season 2009/2010 was published by the local AH, for the second year in a row. The quality of the stickers has been improved significantly compared to the previous album: each player sticker includes a golden signature printed in relief. All 18 Eredivisie teams are showed in alphabetical order: ADO Den Haag, Ajax, AZ, Feyenoord, Groningen, Heerenveen, Heracles Almelo, NAC Breda, NEC, PSV, RKC Waalwijk, Roda JC, Sparta Rotterdam, Twente, Utrecht, Vitesse, VVV Venlo, and Willem II.Each team is placed on 4 pages and has 15 stickers: 2x team squad, 1x club badge and 12x player portraits. The album has a particular shape, long and narrow, as it depicts the dressing rooms of each Eredivise club. Player stickers are placed on the corresponding seats, club badge on a towel and team photo on a frame.As usual, in Eredivisie we find young talented players in the process of becoming international football stars. In this album of the season 2009/2010 we can mention in particular Luis Suarez (Ajax, now at Liverpool), Ibrahim Afellay (PSV, ex Barcelona), Kevin Strootman (Sparta Rotterdam, now at Roma), Dries Mertens (Utrecht, now at Napoli), and Keisuke Honda (VVV, now at CSKA Moscow and about to sign for AC Milan). In this season Twente won its first title, with just one point more than Ajax; third place for PSV. Best scorer was indeed Luis Suarez with 35 goals!In Ajax we can find the stickers of players that are now playing in international teams: Stekelenburg (Roma and Fulham), Van der Wiel (PSG), Verthonghen (Tottenham), Alderweireld (Atletico Madrid), Emanuelson (Milan), and Luis Suarez (Liverpool).

A young Luis Suarez playing for Ajax

AZ features the Finnish Moisander (now at Ajax), whereas Feyenoord a young Wijnaldum (now at PSV) and Leroy Fer (Norwich). AZ team includes a special sticker of the Eredivisie trophy 2009, as they are the title owner.

Afellay at PSV before his move to Barcelona

The "rookie" Kevin Strootman, now an appreciated midfielder of Roma

Twente became champion with the guide of the English coach Steve McLaren. The best players of the team were probably Bryan Ruiz (24 goals, second top scorer of the league) and the creative midfielder Theo Janssen.

At the end of the album there is a page with three extra stickers of remarkable players that could not find a place in the regular team. These three extra players were decided by a survey on the album website and they are Marko Pantelic (Ajax), Miroslav Stoch (Twente) and Darko Lazevic (PSV).